Aiptasia on my purchased coral frag? -- 03/07/09 Good evening, <And you, now Sat. AM> I bought some Fiji LR for my tank a few months back. Over time, I've been spotting what is /obviously/ Aiptasia. <Mmmm> They're white'ish, opaque, with jelly-looking clear tentacles, pop up like weeds randomly, never larger than the head of a thumbtack. Once in a while I get a brown-hued one. I lemon-juice them and they never come out of the same hole again (hurray!) but a new one will pop up from time to time somewhere else. <There are better chemical remedies than citrus... My current fave: AiptasiaX by Red Sea> I have a Coral Banded Shrimp, or I'd have already assaulted the aiptasia with a couple peppermint shrimp. If (when) I upgrade and purchase a larger tank, I think the CBS will stay in the current tank, and some peppermints will be hired for control duty in the main display. <Okay> ... anyway ... I purchased a nice looking Dendrophyllia recently (my first official coral - and its fun to watch it eat when I feed him). I noticed, though, when I got it home, that there was a funny grey polyp-looking thing on the base of the rock my Dendro was attached to. I thought maybe I got a freebie hitchhiker coral of some kind. I directed a little current at it with a turkey-baster, and it retreated into a lil' ball, looking like a grey-tinted plastic trash bag. ("Hefty! Hefty! Hefty!") <Heee! We're indoctrinated... okay, brain-washed> Since then, though, I've seen it actually walk AROUND the base of the rock it is attached to, but never setting foot on the sand. Totally not a coral ... obviously an anemone? <Mmm, yes...> Because it is unattractive and grey could it be a "large" and different species of aiptasia I haven't come in contact with on my Fiji LR? <Possibly> Should I eradicate the lil guy? <I would not... just in case this is something you might well consider valuable later...> I'd rather not kill it if it /isn't/ aiptasia, obviously, but I don't want it killing my Dendro (which has seemed pouty the last couple days and refused to come out - but I blamed it on my fish knocking the rock over and covering it in sand) or causing an explosion of evil bigger aiptasia in my tank. <This would do it> This thing is maybe dime-sized when fully expanded, and it seems to LOVE poofing out and expanding. I'm attaching cruddy pictures taken with my camera-phone. I'd love to get you better ones, but my friend's digital camera gets drown out by the T5s, and my own is so old it doesn't focus through glass. lol To kill ... or not to kill ... ~J.
<Not in my opinion. Bob Fenner>

Aiptasia On Decorator Crab? 1/27/09 <Hello Danny> Attached are two pictures of an anemone located on the head of my decorator crab. After researching WWM I am still having trouble determining if this is aiptasia. The mouth of this anemone is pink and the pattern on the "disc" part of the anemone resembles that of those pictured on the website, but seems to have some differences. The outer white ring is segmented by the same dark brown color as the next ring, inward. Also, the base of this anemone is nearly as wide as the "disc" part, in the pictures I've seen as far as I could tell the bases were skinnier. Is this decorator crab's "Mohawk" really just a glass anemone? <Your pictures do not provide enough detail to ID. The first pic, (47KB) is much too small and after zooming in provides little to go on. The second pic, a little better (101KB) isn't clear enough. In fact, I really couldn't detect an anemone. The anemone on the crab could be most any, as decorator crabs are opportunistic as far as what they place on them. They are known to place sponges, algae, Zoanthid polyps, soft corals, etc. When sending pics, it is best to downsize to 200-300KB and send clear/detailed pics.> Thanks for your time, <You're welcome. James (Salty Dog)>
Danny

Another question on Aiptasia 9/13/08 Howdy, Like many others I have spent quite a bit of time on your website trying to figure out if the new critters in my tank are aiptasia, or just cool hitch hikers. <Mmm, both apparently> I have attached a couple of pix of the critters, what are they? The full size images, and a couple of others, can be found at http://william1034.smugmug.com/gallery/5953919_KwMDp/1/371158035_koj2T (Taking pictures of the little critters is no easy task) <Glass anemones> Our tank is about 6 months old. It is 30gal with Tunze Nano Reef Pack skimmer and Nano Stream 6055 and controller, 70 Watt Metal Halide. We have some 'Shrooms, torch, bubble, clove, and Zoanthus corals. <Mmm, these are not all corals...> We also have a cleaner shrimp, serpent star, goby and mated tiger pistol shrimp (this is our favorite part of the tank), and a bangi cardinal. Ammonia - 0ppm Nitrite - 0ppm Nitrate - ~8 to 12 ppm Salinity - 1.024 pH - 8.0 - 8.2 dKH - 8 Temp ~76 I do weekly water changes of 15 to 20 percent. We feed Arcti-pods and DTs plankton every 3rd day. So far our critters are only on the one rock and the oyster. The rock they are on is one of our base rocks and we cannot remove it from the tank for treatments. I do not like using chemicals in my tanks. <Mmm, this universe is only made out of such, energy and space> Since I will never be rid of them I am going to try and control the nutrient levels. <Mmm, do look into Red Sea's new product for... Aiptasia X... really does work> I have been doing freshwater tanks for about 5 years. I currently have a planted 90g tank. We started our SW tank 6 months ago, this is amazing!! <Ahh!> Once we become successful with the small SW we plan on moving to a 185 to 215g SW tank. We will turn our formal living room into a fish room. <Yeeikes! You've got the bug!> Thanks for your help and wonderful website. - William P.S. Here is a link to some additional pictures of our tanks. http://william1034.smugmug.com/Aquariums <Thank you for sharing. Bob Fenner>